Course introduction

Start creating your world. A game world is not just a backdrop for your game—be it minimal or detailed, contained or part of a much bigger universe, it provides the context for your player. Ultimately, a game world should feel alive and wholly unique to any player who will experience it.
In this course, we will explore game worlds in existing games and study the art and influences that inform their themes and styles. We will also investigate key components of environment and level design as well as strategies designers use to define gameplay or advance it. We’ll also look at navigation and the elements that make your world as real (or unreal) as you want it to be. A weekly challenge will prompt you to explore styles and inspirations for possible game worlds, and you’ll learn effective ways to communicate your ideas from concepts to presentation-worthy proofs of concept.

JK

Fantastic! The coursework and lessons were designed to get you started building the framework for your game world. The course got me started on my new game!

AA

Oct 18, 2016

Filled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled Star

Great course! A lot of new and useful stuff. I really enjoyed another part of Game Design: Art and Concepts Specialization. Keep up the great work, guys!

從本節課中

Introduction to World Design

During this first week, we'll start with a brief overview of game worlds and game design. We’ll also examine environments and larger world-based concepts to see how games incorporate a macro-level view of how they progress. At the end of the week, a short assignment prompts you to examine, analyze and comment on games that marked or interested you in terms of their environment design.

教學方

Théotime Vaillant

Instructor, Experimental Animation

腳本

[SOUND] [MUSIC] Hi and welcome to you in a world design world building class here at CalArts. My name is Theotime Vaillant. It's a little long and complicated. So, to make it easier for everybody, I'll just go by Theo. And here, what we're going do in a class is talk about, and maybe designing a little bit, video game worlds. Or game worlds in general, in a broad sense. So, this class is for anyone wanting to extend video game worlds and their characteristics. Game world, if you have a head full of ideas. If you like to design maps, plans, models. Well, you are already in the right place. And even if you feel like you have no artistic skills what-so-ever, you will still benefit from the class. Hopefully, it will still spark some inspiration and ideas for future projects and work. This is going be an introductory class. It means that it's going lean more toward the conceptual principles of world designs. Having technical skills already can helps you prototype quickly, but it doesn't mean you can make a better more thoughtful world just with this. But looking at how video game worlds are structured. How you move and how your avatar moves? How these worlds can be drawn to life? You'll have the tools to begin conceptualizing your world before you even start programming it. A video game world is a complicated illusion, a really complicated illusion. Designing one is a lot of work obviously. But what's also obvious is that it is highly rewarding during the whole process. And nothing beats creating a living breathing world environment for others enjoyment.